The invention concerns heating or air conditioning equipment for the passenger compartment of a motor vehicle, which equipment is connected to the bulkhead on the passenger compartment side, is covered by a dashboard provided with a glove compartment and has an air filter located on the air inlet side, which air filter is designed in particular as a dust filter.
Such heating or air conditioning equipment provided with a filter and associated with a bulkhead is known from German Patent Document DE-PS 37 27 672. Dust filters in particular, which cannot be regenerated locally by desorption (as can odor binding active carbon filters, for example) become blocked with dust particles in the course of time and must be removed and cleaned or replaced in order to ensure an adequate inflow of fresh air. This procedure proves difficult because it is only possible to carry out the removal and replacement from the bottom of the dashboard, where vision is not possible, because of the wall provided to the front and above by the dashboard. The insertion and removal of the filter is made additionally awkward because experience shows that even reaching the air filter is difficult due to the large number of supply lines under the dashboard in the region discussed.
An object of the invention is to design and locate the filter in such a manner that it is available for removal and replacement in a visible and easily achievable manner.
This object is achieved, for heating or air conditioning equipment of the generic type referred to above by providing an arrangement wherein the air filter is aligned at least approximately horizontally and is adjacent to the insert of the glove compartment, and wherein the air filter can be inserted and removed through the glove compartment opening after the insert or a partial region of it has been removed or pivoted away. In this way, filters can be accommodated in a cassette whose maximum extension in the vehicle transverse direction corresponds to the width of the opening of the glove compartment insert and the filter. If the filter is inserted in mat form or folded form, it can have--in its installed position--an extension in the vehicle transverse direction which is greater than the opening width of the glove compartment; it only has to be shortened temporarily by squeezing or fairly strong folding in order to pass it through the opening.
Filters enclosed at their boundaries by a frame, which do not pass through the opening of the glove compartment or must be arranged offset to the side relative to this opening, can be used if the air filter is divided at least once in the vehicle longitudinal direction and a filter section which can be inserted and removed in a straight line through the glove compartment opening is produced by the division. This makes it possible--when removing the filter, for example--initially to move the second and any other filter sections which cannot be drawn out in a straight line into the free space in the filter acceptance feature provided by the removal of the first filter section. Only then are they removed.
Removal of the glove compartment insert for filter insertion and filter removal becomes unnecessary if the back of the insert has an opening which can be closed.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.